Canadian Rockies Day 1 MSP to Calgary to Banff

It is finally time for our Canadian Rockies trip!  We left on Friday June 3rd and we will return to Minneapolis on Sun June 12th.  We were lucky and got free direct flights from MSP to Calgary (thanks skymiles!).  Hearing all the madness about TSA we actually left for the airport so we were there at least 2 hours early.

My mom was nice enough to come down and take Belle back to Duluth and take us to the airport so we didn't have to deal with public transit.

Our house.  Sad to leave with all the flowers in bloom and food coming in the from the garden, but this trip so totally be worth it.

Belle did not have enough room in the car thanks to our luggage and the more than 100 tomato plants that were also making the trip to Duluth

We cleared security within 25 min of getting to the airport.  So we had plenty of time to grab coffee and french meadow.  For some reason Delta was not great at instructions this time.  We tried to check in advance, but then as we checked our bags I had to go rescan my passport anyway.  Then they took our seats away and made us get seats assigned at the gate.  Luckily there was this overly happy gate agent who put us in the exit row across from each other and the guy next to me was willing to switch so we could sit together.

Good french meadow lunch eaten about an hour outside Calgary

Calgary from the air

Not impressed with Budget car rental, but we did finally get a Honda Civic about 45 min after we were supposed to have.  Next stop was our first hike about 75 min away.

Mountains became visible just outside of Calgary

First hike was Ha Ling Peak by the Cannmore Nordic Center (not quite in Banff yet).  These lovely bighorn sheep greeted us at the trail entrance.  I think they were licking the road for salt.

Sign at the start of the hike. 

First about half of the hike looked this this.  Pretty good grade, through the woods with lots of roots.  There were lots of people coming down, but since we started at 3:30 not so many people were going up.

Some local wildlife

After about 2 hours we reached the top.  The last half of the hike was a hard scramble up rocks and loose little rocks.

The hike down was not fun.  At one point I decided slidding on my butt was a little safer.

View from the top of the pass, for sure above the tree line!

Still rough getting down even as we got to the trees.

The hike was good for over 750 m in elevation gain, 4.2 miles in slighly under 3 hours.  This hike really was quite difficult and the guide book really didn't make it clear that we would basically be going straight up a mountain and nearly doing actual climbing at the top.  After saying hi to the sheep we got in the car for the 30 min drive to Banff.

This is the peak we climbed (the pointy one in the middle)

Our room at the Juniper Inn at the base of Mount Norquay.  The hotel seems nice, although it is for sure a 1960's hotel that they are slowly fixing up to be nicer.

The Juniper

We had just enough time to get our stuff into the room and then head over to the Sulfur Mountain Gondola for one of the last cars up for the night.  I stopped for starbucks at the base before heading up.  We originally were going to hike up this mountain, but our legs had other ideas, so the gondola was a welcome (if expensive) alternative.

View facing Banff from the top

Mountains everywhere!

There was a board walk over to the actual top of Sulfur mountain.  At the top was a cosmic ray station (not in use anymore).  

Zach was excited that the gondola was made in Switzerland 

Relaxing on the way down

Amazing views!

After a quick stop at the grocery store for breakfast items we stopped at the restaurant in our hotel for dinner (at like 9:30 luckily they are open late and it was even still light out to enjoy the view).  We shared the beet salad to start.

Then we shared the gnocchi. 

And the vegetarian dish with tuna added.  Both were really good with lots of flavor, but the gnocchi was slightly better. 

Finally the chocolate tort with hazzelnuts and cream for dessert.

View from our room and the hot tub which we stopped at before calling it a night.

All in all a very good start to our week in the Canadian Rookies!

Memorial Day Weekend Day 3 Finally nice as we had to leave

Day 3 Started out like most days...rain.  We managed to get the down down and things packed up in a slight lull in the rain.  Then it was off to Grand Marais for breakfast and surfing the internet while waiting for the rain to let up a little.

World's Best Donuts!  We got 12 of the cake donuts and Zach even got his gross glazed ones.

One more Maple Latte as we waited for the rain to let up.

We drove to Magney State Park (about 20 miles north of Grand Marais).  There is a great little waterfall trail here with tons of steps, but only 2 miles total.

Devil's Kettle again in the rain

View through the trees at the long string of waterfalls

We had to battle a Chinese couple to get one picture from the corner of this overlook, but they did manage to move for 2 min so we could take a picture with the biggest waterfall

Dinky at the base of the big waterfall

Cool looking fern patch on the way back to the car

After the drive back to Grand Marais we stopped at Sven and Oles for our traditional Vild Vin pizza.  It has wild rice on it!

We tried to stop and do the 8 mile Cascade River loop.  However we managed less than a tenth of a mile and it started downpouring.  Here is the first waterfall which I managed to snap a picture of before dashing back to the car

Belle was not amused about getting so wet

Plan B was stopping outside Little Marais for a hike on the Superior Hiking Trail we hadn't done yet.  

That little hill in the back is where our hike took us

Belle enjoying the view.  Right after this is started a very heavy mist with crazy winds.  Luckily that only lasted about 20 min and then the sun finally came out.

Picnic rock was an interesting spur hike with some pretty tricky muddy spots to get around.  The view at the top was worth it though.  Lots of cool rock formations like this one.

Picnic Rock sign

We made it to the top of Sawmill Dome and you can see the landscape!  The sun was almost out and the fog was lifting

The end point of our hike

Interesting rainbow mushrooms

New type of flower, but I am not sure what this one is

Final stop of the day was the short Shovel Point Hike and Tettegouche park.  This is a view of the arch that collapsed a few years ago

On the point the views are amazing...especially without rain and fog!

We made it to the end!

Lots of blueberries on the point.  Somebody is going to have a nice snack come July and Aug

The water here is such a pretty shade of blue!

On the way back we stopped at the beach for Belle to fetch her stick in Lake Superior.

On the drive back to Duluth we made the obligatory stop at Betty's Pies.  This time had a great raspberry rhubarb that we shared with my parents for dinner before heading all the way back to the Cities. 

We are already planning our next trip to the Northshore.  For now though we are getting ready to head out to Banff/Jasper for some serious hiking on Friday!